skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Unlike the rest of the Internet, where a joke suffices just fine, generally HN requires that you have a point. So - what is yours? Obviously a "gap year" is something that not everyone can afford to do. The same could be said of college. That fact alone doesn't speak to the merit of the idea.
San Francisco's Car-Sharing Services Flourish Despite Regulators
You're correct that most programmers don't have to write sort functions by hand but there are certainly a few issues.

Big O notation , or at least a Big O way of thinking is definitely useful when doing things like optimising queries and data structures etc.

For example I've solved performance issues in the past with DBs with poor indexing strategies (or no index at all). When I read the DB manual and it talks about different types of indexes and says "doing X will cause Y or doing Z will cause A". Knowing something about Big O notation and related things means that I can immediately intuitively understand what they key differences between Y and A would be.

Thinking about performance in terms of growth also helps me guess which parts of the application require the most optimisation. For example which parts have a roughly fixed n and which parts n will grow with time.

Abstractions leak, especially when you are dealing with parallel processing which will become increasingly important as time goes on. How you store and think about your data is going to have huge implications for just about everyone in software in the coming years when having to scale sort operations etc over hundreds of discreet CPU cores becomes the norm.

I think a degree in CS is not intended to teach you "what you will need to be a successful software developer today" but more "here are the tools to think about whatever the problems may be for software developers in 10 years time".

I agree that maybe there is going to be a gap between what is required for a CRUD implementer vs what is required for someone who designs DBMS systems for oracle and that employers want people qualified in the latter to perform the former.

OTOH I feel that this is something that the free market will correct over time and is already beginning to do so. I know a few programmers who are productively employed who are not well versed in CS theory but are still payed well because they can bring other skills to the table.
I think it has more to do with the fact that affluent people from other countries don't do the gap year thing and this is why it's seen as a 'white phenomenon'.

I'm brown (from India) and have been traveling full time for the past 1 year with my girlfriend (who is white, from Portugal) and we've rarely met any non-white travelers even though there are plenty that can afford to.

I think it's just cultural. White people have stronger wanderlust.

(Back home everyone thinks I'm crazy :P)
First of all you have to tell us what kind of public you have.
I'm betting most people don't care about this (this is what I see from my friends anyway). They want to be tagged. Therefore it makes sense that Jane would have to enable it. There's no point inconveniencing the majority of your users to satisfy the minority. If you really care about your privacy the first thing you would do using a service like Facebook is check your privacy settings.
Using Project Resource Software in the Cloud
The evil Rothschild's are still costing today. A redistribution of wealth that was accumulated prior to 1900 should be instituted (or maybe for even before 1980).
One thing not mentioned in the paper is also music. Each octave increases exponentially (each is twice the frequency of the previous). However our ears perceive the difference between notes as linear (it is actually linear if you take the log of the frequency). One theory is due to the shape of the inner ear, where the individual hairs that hear sounds each octave apart are spaced lineally.
I think the idea of ride sharing is pretty cool. But to be fair when I read about some of the ride services, they kinda are just unregulated taxi services.

If somebody's heading to the airport and I get to hitch a ride with them - that's a ride share. Having drivers waiting for ride requests and then taking them wherever they want to go - call me crazy but that doesn't seem like ride sharing to me.
That's wrong in the sense that it conflates trading strategies with HFT. It has always been a technical challenge to buy or sell large blocks; it is in fact one of the fundamental basic challenges.

The money HFTs collect tends to come from the bid/ask spread. It's money that was already being taxed out of trades, but now robots are competing for it.
Google Wallet: Person To Person Money Transfers, Paypal-Style Money Storage
it wasn't just their site it was their entire service. All people who use their DNS was down as well since DNS services were down and my site wasn't hosted by them. Back up now though.
www.iceboxpro.com
I'm a Swiss male. Since we all have to do 240 days military days minimum (soldier grade, sometimes they force people to do more, 21 weeks is mandatory as military academy, the rest can be split up), most of the men here take one year off anyways. Plus we start school at 7, so most men begin university at 20. It's pretty late but I have to say that I think the additional level of experience helped me tremendously to make the right choices later on. Plus I met my wife in my year 'off'.

So yeah, IMO noone should give shit to those guys choosing to take that year off. University education is the final stage before modern adulthood and it's important to do the right choices - after primary and mid school where everyone has been spoon fed it's really no surprise people need to take a bit of time to know what they want and who they want to be.
F1 racing is a game. You're then equating stock trading with a game (a casino) when it should be serving everyone in society.

Closing off a large number of people because they lack "sophistication" is called facism. We should be striving for small c capitalism.
So it's basically like the difference between a company hiring contractors to develop a custom accounting system, vs. going out and buying a copy of Quickbooks. Makes sense now.
We will simplify!
I don't think we need terms like "retina" or "high PPI" at all. Consumers can decide which PPI is good enough for themselves.

Sharp is now producing 5-inch 1920x1080 443 PPI displays. Obviously this is much higher than anything we have ever seen, so it is not a "retina display". What should we call it? Instead of "cornea display" or "very high PPI", I prefer the term "443 PPI".
When you load up Gmail on a mobile device it does some pretty aggressive browser side caching. Works really well! But file upload is definitely an important reason to have apps. However, the article is talking about reading the news and those don't have much to do with file upload..
I wonder if some of these startups knowingly run afoul of the law, thinking that if they build sufficient ridership it will give them the sway to have the laws changed.
I'm not surprised about this. Caveat emptor.
Cool I get that. So what I want is for users to be able to send messages to other users in various forms through 3rd party apps but NOT through send dialog: through functions built straight into the app like you can do with wall posts now.
>Each 56kb line with single hub and router (for remote disaster recovery sites only)

Mm good old days of dialup. All yours for $900/month.
I was just looking for a place a couple of months ago, I'm living in West End now but my lease ends early next year if you are looking by then don't hesitate to give me a shout.
Over the course of my life I've met more Australians doing the "Travel the world for a year" thing than any other nationality. By far.

From here it almost seems like a cultural institution, but of course I'm not meeting the people who don't do it.
The NANEX research page[1] has a lot more information about the different MOs that they spot. It looks like NANEX first spotted it on October 1st:

"On October 1, 2012, we detected a new form of quote stuffing that tries to hide under the radar. It involves hundreds of stocks and millions of bogus quotes during the trading day. The algo that generates them is very careful to spread out the stocks targeted and limits each test to a blast of exactly 200 quotes in 25 milliseconds or less. The quotes all come from Nasdaq, and sometimes affect the Best Bid or Offer: the only change appears to be a fluttering of the bid or offer size."[2]

Doing my best tptacek impression "the nut graf is":

"We believe that this algo will continue to grow and if left unchecked, could very well contribute to the next flash crash because it removes precious network capacity and provides zero economic value such as price discovery."

They posted an update on the 5th with a neat visualization of the trading activity[3]. If you just want to see a neat animated gif the direct link is:

http://www.nxcoreapi.com/aqck2/Algo200.gif

They have a list of the activity from October 1st[4], but it is not clear to me what the second and third fields are:

Example:

09:01:03|P|9|UMDD
09:01:03|P|6|MVV
09:01:03|P|6|MIDU
09:01:03|P|4|IVOO
09:26:20|P|9|UMDD
09:28:44|P|7|SGOL

The second and third fields have the following possible values:

13 4 N P Q
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a A b B C D E F

I was looking at the nxcore api docs [5] and I could not tell what these fields could be. The field values do not seem to match up to the listed values for exchanges or order types.

[1] http://www.nanex.net/aqck/aqckIndex.html

[2] New Quote Stuffing Algo http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3610.html

[3] Quote Spammer Spotted http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3614.html

[4] http://www.nanex.net/aqck2/3610%5C20121001.200.txt

[5] http://www.nanex.net/apidocs.html

EDIT:

I am delighted and rather surprised to say that someone from NANEX responded to my inquiry about the second and third fields.

"P = ARCA (we've since determined that the algo only ran on NYSE and Nasdaq listed issues)

N = NYSE

Q = Nasdaq

The 3rd column is the SIP multicast line that would carry the quote. For
Nasdaq listed, those are carried on UQDF which uses 6 lines and we label
as A, B, C, D, E, F. For NYSE/ARCA listed those are carried on CQS which
uses 12 lines, we label as 1-9,a,b."
I'm an amateur and I want to start a bank. How upset should I be?
It's more nuanced than that. There are things like patents and copyrights. When it suits them, big C capitalists demand longer trading terms, then turn around and say the opposite when it comes to HFT (shorter trading terms). (They also do this with their accredited investor requirements).

HFT harms society because it cuts off the number of investors that can do active trading. It's net effect is the same as regulations the keep out entrepreneurs from innovating in things like health care and drones and car manufacturing.
Avoid a huge debt burden for the sake of prestige and college can be four gap years. Do crazy things for course credit. Take professors in all sorts of your interests out to lunch and ask them questions. Experiment. Mess up. Go around the world in the summer, a semester, or for a year and have it sanctioned. Whatever. All of it can inform your technical or practical pursuits and in some cases change your path. College is Disneyland for hackers and entrepreneurs. If you arrive at this view of it early, there's no reason to delay it.
Wikipedia has a better explanation than I or others' comments, so far, could provide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_versus_nominal_value, and it 's "secondary" meaning is not, at all, limited to aerospace linguistics.
I can't comment on XUbuntu, but I went from LXDE to Debian+Xfce and finally settled on Debian+OpenBox.

If you're really only interested in Xfce vs. LXDE, I'd go with Xfce -- but only because it should be less of a memory hog & I doubt you'll miss much from its heavier cousin. Honestly though, either would probably work fine.

Or hey, give OpenBox a crack. :)

(Be warned I'm a keyboard junkie, so my love of OpenBox might be tainted by that :) Between the customizable shortcuts + menu & some of my own stuff [http://tomlee.co/code/ginvoke] I rarely have a reason to reach for the mouse outside of the browser.)
Abercrombie Brussel
Ralph Lauren
That is the most optimistic statement about profile-directed optimization that I have ever read.
Show HN: Snorby Cloud - Cloud Based Network Security Monitoring
Actually, in the NAS Oceana F/A-18 crash, two different engines failed for different reasons. The first one was a right engine compressor failure, the second was an apparent afterburner blowout. A twin engine jet crashed as a result.
Inside traders who submit large blocks via darkpool reduce their chances of getting caught. If enough insiders collude and decide to anonymously, but simultaneously act on a certain company via darkpool trading, the chances of getting caught are further reduced. (Mapping patterns among public info is presumably much easier than mapping patterns among cloaked private info).

What is interesting and kind of baffling is that this fine was waged at all, in light (cough) of the supposed goal of the SEC to "strengthen regulation of dark pools" proposed back in 2009:

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2009/2009-223-fs.htm

I would be willing to bet that dark pool trading, which tripled in volume between 2002 - 2009 has probably 10Xed between 2002 and 2012, and might even be one of the underlying causes of the much hyped meltdown of the markets right around that time.
The problem is that "communication platforms" don't normally run background checks, process payments, or offer insurance policies. Ironically, getting rid of these things - which serve to make the service safer - probably would make them more legally sound.
"Mysterious algorithm..."

I suppose that's technically correct-- we don't know how the algorithm works. But they make it sound like they have no idea to whom the algorithm belongs. If your logging can't get you this information (the bot's owner), I have no hope for the security of the exchanges.

If this kind of thing is a problem, then read your logs, visit the 'offending' party, and Do Something About It.
I think the problem here is that you're doing EVERYTHING. If you tested out a single vertical (e.g. legal work for startups), and connected it with a market of, say, well credentialed lawyers who're interested in working for themselves, then I would know exactly what your site is for, and how/when I might use it.

If you tell me that I should use you for everything, I'm probably going to use you for nothing. Give the verticals their own websites.
Startup converts me into a spokesperson without me knowing it
Here's a perfect example of how promoting a Facebook post can be really creepy.

A coworker opened up his Facebook account today and this was what we saw. The first post on his feed was something Storylane had sponsored - a post on my behalf. I didn't know that I had allowed Storylane to post on my behalf (my bad, apparently) but more importantly I had no idea that they could pay to promote that post on my friends' feeds.

So, what just happened here? I log into a website, then that company - through a series of now acceptable events - pays to convert me into a spokesperson... even though I only logged in to check out their design and don't actually care much about their platform at all. Is it just me, or is that going a bit too far?
Assisting with hijack, I'm not sure it's only an American thing... Trawl Urbanspoon for Australia and you'll find plenty of restaurants (particularly fine dining) reviewed with a bitch about how much they cost compared to quantity delivered.

Non-hijack: I'm not convinced that this restaurant has a "strategy" that involves being under the radar. Indeed, their marketing appears to go as far as telling people who walk past that it's open. They don't even appear to have a name. That's not being a tricksy "invite only" place, it's just not having any branding. At all.
You should be upset. Why is it that only select few can have reserve requirements and make interest on free loans from the central bank. It's a direct transfer of wealth to the chosen few.
Fantastic: everything I hate about TV, combined with everything I hate about the industry I work in.

I've met one of the people in the show and I think it's fair to say that this is about the tech industry in the same way that a show featuring publishing PR agents is a show about writing books- which is to say, not at all.

Should the situation arise, I will actively avoid working with anyone 'starring' in this show.
An ATtiny? Sure! A full-blown Arduino? Hells no.
Hey - thanks so much. Do you think you'll have some time to chat? Let us know, I'm at eric[at]huskylab.co
I am using a pinterest-inspired layout for an upcoming project (Collaborative poetry). Planning to come out with a beta this week, and apply for YC this month.

1. Can HNers give me some feedback on aesthetics (or other)?
http://i.imgur.com/8BCE3.jpg

2. My domain is www.poe3.com. Is that an interesting hack?

Thanks in advance.
>It took someone the size of Apple to work with the music industry to sell mainstream music legally to the masses.

This is historically inaccurate; Apple was merely the first to do so at such scale. UMG/Sony/WMG all had the 99cents/10dollar albums by 2000, the iTMS wasn't available until 2003.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_music_store#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_version_history
Technically you can't assure us that banks face greater scrutiny unless you can also describe reliably the level of scrutiny that paypal falls under - or is it common knowledge that paypal doesn't get this kind of audit? I'd be interested in reading a good description of paypal security auditing, if there's anything available.
If you believe that, why would you want to run an algorithmic automated trading system?
Getting all the rich creeps to leave is a feature.
Read your logs? The people that identified the algo are just looking at quotes coming in from different exchanges. What logs do you think they can look at?
I know people in the echo chamber don't like to hear this, but ridesharing is not an innovation. Los Angeles and Chicago have had ridesharing programs for at least a decade. Hell, even Cleveland had a ridesharing program years before Uber or Lyft were founded (and that was how I got around Cleveland in law school).

Uber and Lyft call themselves "ridesharing" programs where passengers "donate" money to a driver who "just happens" to be going to the same destination as his passengers but who will not remain at that destination and who will probably pick up more passengers shortly thereafter and "coincidentally" drive them to their desired location in exchange for a "donation." Uber and Lyft can use all the euphemisms they want, but they what they are is the very definition of a for-hire car service.

The fact that they straddle the line between two types of regulated car services (cabs and limos/"charter car") does not change the essence of the commercial transaction that takes place. The fact that a mobile app or website is used to arrange the transaction instead of a phone call does not change the essence of the commercial transaction that takes place.

Regulations on cars-for-hire exist for a reason: to protect the safety of passengers by ensuring a minimal level of competence and to ensure recompense via adequate capital or insurance in the event of an accident. These regulations work remarkably well, which is why so many people think they are unnecessary.
Package and dependency management shouldn't put you off Slackware
As a mediocre programmer, I probably could have answered the questions at some point in time, but since they are not applicable to my day-to-day life, much of the information has faded away. This has prompted me to refresh my memory, but it is too late for this quiz, as per the requirements.

Assuming you've been in the business for a long time, and not just fresh CS graduate or something, what have you done to stay intimately familiar with the concepts that you do not utilize in any regular capacity?
This show is the air that inflates tech bubbles.
More detailed information can be found on the snorby blog - http://blog.snorby.org/
> the new Socialist administration proposed to tax an entrepreneur’s capital gains as ordinary income

Actually, they plan to tax all capital gains as ordinary income, most of that comes from stock/financial investments. The article doesn't mention that this was not meant to impact entrepreneurs but is merely a side effect. As I understand it, there will most likely be an exemption for this case.
>HN loves to criticize Apple for forcing their UIs to mimic real-life (think Newsstand, leather stitching, etc)

Ornament does not impact usability. In your two listed examples, they do not influence how the user interacts with the software.

This page flip is an example of mimicking real-world interaction and not just appearance.
Tough to say. For Ridejoy in particular, regulation could be a challenge, because it will be argued that by matching drivers with underused vehicles, there's an implicit promise that the vehicles are roadworthy and so on. Sure, you can invite users of the service to waive some of their rights or voluntarily accept a degree of risk and uncertainty to use the service, but courts sometimes view such arrangements as contracts of adhesion - tilted in favor of the offeror by virtue of the fact that a large organization has substantially more bargaining power than an individual, who is left with little choice but to accept or reject terms rather than negotiate them.

I don't have a strong opinion on how this should turn out and am not an attorney. Rules that limit industry like this are sometimes the result of regulatory capture, but are equally often the result of consumer pressure following malfeasance by unscrupulous service providers some time in the past. Certainly such rules represent an increase in red tape, but that doesn't mean they're inherently bad; one might argue that they're an unavoidable corollary of a complex technological society, reflective of the challenges faced by its members - just as product liability rules are reflective of industrialization's severance of the traditional relationship consumer and producer that used to exist at the local level (blacksmiths, carpenters, et al.).

Incidentally, I hope people won't interpret the CPUC's representatives mention of enforcement mechanisms as a threat. Spokespersons for public bodies like this are duty-bound to cite the way the law actually operates, rather than make policy statements about how it should operate. So discussion of enforcement mechanisms is no more than a restatement of fact in response to journalistic inquiry.
That's a false premise. The "purpose" of capital markets isn't to "serve society" any more so than the "purpose" of restaurants is to "serve food". Restaurants (and any other businesses for that matter) exist to generate profits. They merely satisfy that goal by serving food, but it could be done a million other ways.

The stock market exists not because of some idealized goal of serving society, but because companies want to sell partial ownership and transfer risk from themselves to the public in exchange for potential future returns on that investment. Anyone member of the public who purchases stock in a company should understand that agreement. It also has secondary benefits like providing liquidity for employees, etc., but the New York Stock Exchange wasn't founded with that purpose in mind. In other words, the stock market doesn't owe you anything.

That point aside, could you clarify how HFT hurts you? If your goal is to use stock markets as an investment vehicle, then your time horizon should be on the order of months and years, not seconds. If that's the case, then HFT has no impact on you whatsoever. If you do want to play in the second time range, then my analogy with F1 racing is perfectly applicable and there's no justification for your complaint.
Most people can't do that because their money will be put there by their 401K (which if they don't put money in willl lose out as well).